Pro-Coup Government and Allies Pushing Agenda Forward at Citizens Rights Expense

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - For
us it is clear that the same terror and repression against the people
from the 1980’s is occurring today. We, the people of Honduras, are
still mobilizing for the return of our constitutional rights and the
constitutional right of our President returning to power, despite the
powerful efforts to deny both.

The
militaries manipulation revealed itself again when Grenades exploded in
Tegucigalpa, and the Spokesperson for the National Police Force Hector
Ivan Mejilla, stated that the explosions were from demonstrators.

Because
of the state of exception, the government is controlling our right and
privacy to communicate. All of our phones are now being tapped by the
death squads, and the army is systematically detaining people
attempting to enter into
Tegucigalpa to participate in the organized protest. They are pulling people
off
of buses, confiscating identification cards and disrupting regular
transit routes throughout the country in order to bring supporters en
masse to the capital. This morning at 11am, they began detaining people
attempting to join the marches which was long before the 4pm official
curfew. During the same time 10 Nicaraguan citizens were detained.

The
military is fully mobilized and controls the country, especially
outside the capital where militaries tactics are much more violent and
extreme. Of the 50 people who were arrested at yesterdays march in San
Pedro Sula 18 were released and it is still believed that official
charges will be brought against them.

The group Committee for Peace and Democracy is
mobilizing in favor of the coup government, consulting with experts in
psychological warfare. This is the same group that in the 1980’s
functioned as the political committee for the paramilitaries and death
squads, known as the Association for the Progress and Development of
Honduras (APRO). They are standing in favor of the decreed state of
exception, and are calling for an extension of the decree, which
suspends constitutional rights, for 15 more days. They are making
concentrated efforts to persuade the general secretary of the OAS, Jose
Miguel Insulza, that it is an ideological struggle, not a physical one,
further stating that Chavez is a demon threatening Honduras.

The
committee has already erased all of the messages demonstrators had left
on the walls yesterday to inform people of what is happening, and this
is the ONLY mode of expression we have left. There are now huge signs
over the streets and freeways in favor of the de facto government.

Today
the military shut down the only radio station reporting on the coup,
Radio Globo, and a journalist from that station called the national
commissioner for human rights, Ramon Custodio to denounce the violation
of her rights. The commissioner responded by saying, “why are you
speaking about what you shouldn’t be speaking about? I can not hear you
because I am going to the Presidential seizure of police authorities.

The
defacto government has been swearing in government officials. It is
believed that the international delegation scheduled to arrive and the
subsequent negotiations will guarantee Michelletti and his government a
safe escape from justice and will perhaps allow some of the officials
he has sworn in to keep their positions when Zelaya returns to office.

COFADEH demands:

• The immediate return of our constitutionally elected President Manuel Zelaya.
• International condemnation of the Honduran Commissioner of Human Rights in Honduras, Ramon Custodio, due to:
• positions taken which place him as an apologist for the coup government
• negligance of duties  required by international law concerning human rights
• not defending certain sectors of the Honduran people (those opposed to the coup government).